Nick Nolte

A two-time Academy Award nominee, Nick Nolte has sustained a discernible level of integrity throughout his career, leading him to the biggest role of his life -- international super-stardom, and to his role as producer of many of the projects in which he appears under the banner of his production company Kingsgate Films.

With the ability to masterfully portray a wide range of roles, Nolte was most recently seen in Paramount Pictures' The Spiderwick Chronicles; Sony Pictures Classics' The Beautiful Country, directed by Hans Peter Moland and executive-produced by Terrence Malick; the Olivier Assayas-directed Clean, costarring Maggie Cheung; Peaceful Warrior, adapted from the Dan Millman novel Way of the Peaceful Warrior and directed by Victor Salva; and Neverwas, directed by Joshua Michael Stern and co-starring Ian McKellan, Jessica Lange and William Hurt. He also voiced the character of Vincent the Bear in DreamWorks' animated feature Over the Hedge.

Nolte's additional recent film credits included playing the United Nations commander in the critically acclaimed feature Hotel Rwanda, starring Don Cheadle, as well as director Neil Jordan's crime caper The Good Thief, Ang Lee's The Hulk for Universal Pictures and the Polish brothers' Northfork for Paramount Classics. Nolte also re-teamed with director Alan Rudolph to film Investigating Sex, in which he starred opposite Neve Campbell and Robin Tunney.

Nolte returned to his acting roots when he starred along with Sean Penn in the stage production of Sam Shepard's play The Late Henry Moss. In recent years, Nolte has successfully added to his credit top contending films such as director Paul Schrader's Affliction, in which he received Academy Award, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Actor; Oliver Stone's U Turn, co-starring Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez; Afterglow, produced by Robert Altman; Jefferson in Paris, in which he portrayed Thomas Jefferson; Martin Scorsese's thriller remake Cape Fear; and The Prince of Tides, in which he starred opposite Barbra Streisand, and for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe as Best Actor. He starred opposite Julia Roberts in I Love Trouble and as a basketball coach in Blue Chips, for director William Friedkin. Additionally, Nolte starred in I'll Do Anything for writer/director James L. Brooks, and in the critically acclaimed Lorenzo's Oil, co-starring Susan Sarandon.

His production company, Kingsgate, currently has in development White Jazz, with a James Ellroy script based on his best-selling film noir novel, and The Last Magic Summer, an adaptation of the Peter Gent novel of the same name.

Nolte, an Omaha, Nebraska native, played college football before he discovered theatre, and began his acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse. He studied briefly with Bryan O'Byrne at Stella Adler's Academy in Los Angeles. He then traveled for several years performing in regional theatres.

Landing a breakthrough role in the legendary television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man marked only the beginning for Nolte, launching him into international fame. Following its success, he made his feature film debut starring in The Deep opposite Jacqueline Bisset.

Diversity of character became Nolte's signature in his early film career, with roles as a drug-smuggling Vietnam veteran in Who'll Stop the Rain, a disillusioned football star in North Dallas Forty, which he developed with author Peter Gent; free-spirited beat-era writer Neal Cassidy in Heart Beat; and a reclusive marine biologist in Cannery Row.

Nolte continued to challenge himself with such character roles as the philosophical vagrant in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, a tough cop in 48 Hrs., an American photojournalist in Under Fire, and a determined lawman in Extreme Prejudice. He created another unique character in Weeds, an excon turned playwright.

Other Nolte film credits have included Three Fugitives, Farewell to the King, Scorsese's segment of New York Stories, Karel Reisz' Everybody Wins, and Sidney Lumet's Q & A.

Note: This profile was written in or before 2008.Read earlier biographies on this page.